Review: The love of all things Soviet and disco has been established by French/German duo Fulgeance and Scientist for several years now, having reached a peak last year with their album The Soviet Tape on First Word. Now they return with their own edit series on brand new label Excursions. With eyes squared fully on the floor, each obscurity is given some serious groove muscle for the floor... Charaunitsy's soulful croons and yearning horns are given an additional kick/snare swing, Latvia's Mirdza gets a deliciously camp turbo charge while Ukraine's Tatyana Kochergina gets a full-on Philly treatment with lavish strings and a bassline that won't say nyet.

Review: Former Bugz In The Attic crewmember Alex Phountzi first joined forces with fellow broken beat pioneer IG Culture four years ago. Together, they launched the NameBrandSound project with a tidy EP of bass-weight business on Ninja Tune's Technicolour offshoot. Here the experienced twosome return with their first - and presumably only - missive of 2018. A-side "Shrunken Heads" is something of a percussive, off-kilter dancefloor beast, as the duo re-imagines Talking Heads classic "Once In A Lifetime" as a rolling, bruk-up floor-filler. Over on side B, "Bebop" sees them pepper another swinging, house-influenced bruk-up rhythm with lashings of synth-sax and some suitably shimmering chords.

Review: Not just what Sean Connery sits on when he's relaxing, Showfa is also an intriguing, mysterious editor/collector/blogger/selector with a remarkably deep knowledge of gospel, soul and funk. Here we strike gold with their own Excursions debut as three piano-hammering, harmony-belting fusions run amok... "Thankful" is the prize piece with its full chorus on blast while "He'll Answer" takes a dash of synth disco and slides it under the gutsy vocals while "Just A Little Talk" riffs on a well-known yacht anthem. Hearing is believing... Lord a mercy!